


Mother's Research Was Supposed to be Flawless

by TheApatheticKat



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Agender Character, Gen, No Sexual Content, Zombie AU, enemies to friends to a budding crush, i probably won't write beyond canon-typical violence anyway, the rating's only there for violence language and horror, tw: blood and gore, tw: child abuse, tw: human and animal death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-06 04:57:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11593401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheApatheticKat/pseuds/TheApatheticKat
Summary: After what was supposed to be forgotten research goes awry and turns Medusa's previous subjects into monsters bent on infecting every living human being they see, she forcibly drags her whole team along with her to make sure her plans don't grind to a halt. But for Crona, this was quickly becoming the last straw. Perhaps it was time for one of Medusa's own to turn against her. Crossposted to Fanfiction.net.





	1. It Begins

     Bright, searing white light flooded the dark room. Crona began to stir, rudely awoken after sleeping for who-knows-how-long, opening their eyes to see Medusa glaring down at them. Their time in here must be up. Thankfully.

     "Get up," Medusa said. Crona yawned, pushing themself up to a sitting position.

     "Good morning, Lady Medusa," they replied, stretching out their arms and back. Sleeping on nothing but that stone floor pretty much guaranteed they weren't going to be comfortable when they woke up. And combining that with the near-constant, throbbing back pain from Ragnarok bursting out as he pleased...

     "It's five-thirty in the evening," Medusa said. Crona stared at her in disbelief. It wasn't like they could really tell time in the dark room anyway, especially after being locked in there for days on end. "Come on, Crona, your time in here is up."

     Crona got up to their feet, taking a few steps out into the blindingly white hall. Medusa shut the door to the dark room, and without saying another word, led Crona out up to the ground floor of her research lab. The lights up there were off, but the sun hadn't begun to set yet. It was better on Crona's eyes than the hall downstairs was, so they weren't going to complain. Complaining might just send them back down to the dark room again. No, they didn't want that.

     "Eruka still isn't back," Medusa said, with annoyance in her voice. "How long can getting groceries take? I gave her a list."

     Groceries. Eruka was going to get the groceries. Which meant dinner wasn't going to be until at least when she got back, most likely even longer. Crona barely had any time to think about it, before the tense silence of the room was suddenly broken by their screams. The pain in their back grew worse and worse, until Ragnarok burst out, taking his huge, muscular form. Despite being Crona's blood, he looked to be nearly twice their size. He looked around the room, grumbling something under his breath.

     "When the hell is dinner?" Ragnarok asked. "Crona and I are _literally_ starving, you know."

     Before Medusa could answer, there was a knock at the door. A frantic, slamming, repetitive knock. The door was soon kicked open by Eruka's white high-heeled boot. She ran in, screaming in fear as a rotten greenish-gray human hand clawed at the door.

     "Uh, Ragnarok..." Crona said, watching Eruka slam the door into the hand repeatedly.

     "Got it," Ragnarok replied, transforming into a sword.

     "Eruka, what's going on?" Medusa shouted. Eruka paused her door slamming.

     "They're everywhere!" she shrieked.

     "What's everywhere?" Crona asked, as the door came open further and what looked to be a rotting corpse began to walk through, black blood dripping down its hand.

     "These things!" Eruka replied, slamming the door into the corpse's face, smashing its skull into the door frame. It fell to the floor, seeming to be dead for real. Crona cautiously held Ragnarok's hilt just in case it wasn't. Black blood dripped out the wound in the corpse's skull. Medusa moved a table in front of the door (thanks to Eruka busting the frame on her way in) before looking down at the corpse.

     "Ribbit, I think it's dead," Eruka said.

     "Why is it bleeding black?" Crona asked. "I thought I was the only one."

     "Perseus," Medusa said, looking at the corpse's clothes. _Its body's in too much of a state of decay to identify it from sight alone, so that must have been her only way to... name it?_ Crona thought, hearing a flush in the background, before Free ran out from a nearby door.

     "I heard commotion, what's going on?" he asked.

     "You're late," Ragnarok said.

     "I was on the can," Free replied, before looking down at the corpse, then up to Medusa. "Are we grave robbing now?"

     "No," Medusa replied. There were a few more slams at the door. More like this... "Perseus", whatever it was, must have been out there. "This was a previous research subject of mine," Medusa said, gesturing to the corpse.

     "Previous research subject?" Eruka asked.

     "Of course, are you shortsighted enough to think Crona was the first one?" Medusa asked. "It was only the first one to survive. I had several others before it."

     Crona then had a horrible thought.

     "Wait, then how'd it become... this?" they asked. "And... and... and am I going to turn into something like it?"

     Medusa shrugged her shoulders, doing nothing to alleviate Crona's panic. In fact, she didn't even explain what she meant by this thing being a previous research subject. Crona didn't even know there were others before them.

     "Answer us for real, damn it!" Ragnarok snapped.

     "Eruka, why haven't you brought back the groceries?" Medusa asked, completely ignoring Ragnarok.

     "I didn't even make it to the grocery store, ribbit," Eruka replied. "Before these... things started showing up. One guy got attacked by several, and that was when the mass panic started. I think the guy who got attacked turned into one. I wasn't sure whether or not to release my Soul Protect, and Tadpole Jackson was still back here so I couldn't have a quick getaway. So I just ran back here, and some of them followed me, and that's why there's a rotten corpse on your floor."

     "Useless information," Medusa said. "If you didn't know what was going on, say so. Don't waste my time."

     "I'm sorry, Lady Medusa," Eruka replied.

     "Free, go back out there and get whatever food and supplies you can find, preferably canned or otherwise well-preserved," Medusa said, handing Free the grocery list. "But not frozen."

     "I understand," Free replied, pushing the table aside before running out the door. Crona pushed the table back into its place.

     "I'm going to go make dinner out of any perishables we have," Medusa said.

     "Finally," Ragnarok muttered under his breath. "Been long enough, right, Crona?"

     "What... what the hell is going on?" Crona asked, pinching their arm. "I'm not dreaming. I'm NOT. DREAMING. And what's with this Perseus guy? How many others were there before m-"

     "Shut up," Medusa said, walking off to the kitchen. Following her would probably make her angrier, so Crona just sat down in the corner, leaning against a wall. Not that their life could throw them any more curveballs after that. Medusa would probably send them to take care of whatever was out there. Since one of her previous research subjects had apparently come back from the dead, there was a chance it could be her fault. Well, if Medusa wanted to evolve the world past DWMA's status quo stuff or whatever she's said, if these things are infecting others, that sure would be one way to do it. And then came horrible thought number two: what if she no longer needed Crona, and what would happen to them if that were the case?

     "If she doesn't need me anymore, I'd probably just be cast aside to die then, wouldn't I?" Crona said to nobody in particular. Eruka gave them a strange look before going off to presumably see if Medusa needed any help in the kitchen.

     "Nah, I'm pretty sure she still wants to create a Kishin," Ragnarok replied. "I mean, why would she change the world a little when she can change it a lot?"

     "This already feels like a lot," Crona said.

     "Everything feels like a lot to you, doesn't it?" Ragnarok asked, a bit of spit flying out of his mouth. (why the mouth was still on his sword form, Crona didn't know)

     "I guess," Crona replied, wiping the spit off their cheek. They heard Eruka running down a hall. It had to be her, Medusa didn't wear shoes at home, especially not high heeled boots. What was she running down the hall for, anyway? Crona considered getting up to ask Eruka if she needed anything, but then Eruka sped back through the hall, holding a light-colored briefcase with arrows all over it. The attache case. Yup, Medusa definitely still had plans to create a Kishin. And it seems she was going for the backup plan on that one. Perhaps her research with Crona had become obsolete after all.

     "Shit, maybe we _are_ going to get cast aside," Ragnarok said.

     "Maybe she'll at least give us a last meal," Crona said. But maybe, just maybe, they wouldn't have to be cast aside. All Crona would have to do to prevent it is exactly what Medusa said, and maybe, just maybe, she'd someday think Crona was a good child/research subject and they'd get something better in life. Not like they didn't have any other choice but to hope, since it was all they had left.

 

     Eruka didn't return to the room, nor did Medusa. And several minutes had already passed by then. Several minutes of just wallowing in dread of possibly being cast aside, possibly even cast aside to die. Crona got up and began making their way to the kitchen. They began to smell something savory and meaty cooking. It smelled like it was going to be the most delicious thing in the world, even though it was just a "use up all the perishables because this is a textbook beginning to the apocalypse" meal. With how hungry they were, Crona probably would have considered anything the most delicious thing in the world, but this definitely felt like it was going to be something special. They slowly approached the door, soon within earshot of Medusa and Eruka's conversation.

     "But if this becomes a full, worldwide, apocalypse, it would be kinder just to terminate my current research subject," Medusa said. The savory smells did nothing to stop the atmosphere from turning sour.

     "Terminate?" Eruka asked. "When are you going to do it, ribbit?"

     "I said it would be kinder to, not that I was going to do it," Medusa replied. "No, Crona is going to stay alive until it becomes useless to me. I can't cast it aside yet because I need an extra fighter who can go days without eating, or someone to use as bait, or a scapegoat to prevent other survivors from getting mad at me...well, you get the picture."

     "Well, at least I'm not going to get killed right off the bat," Crona said.

     "Crona?" Eruka asked. "How long have you been standing there?"

     "We've been here long enough," Ragnarok replied, transforming back into his usual form. "So when's dinner?"

     "It won't be ready for a little while, so don't bother me," Medusa said. "Is Free back?" she asked. There was a loud slam coming from outside.

     "GOD DAMN IT! SHIT!"

     "I guess so, ribbit," Eruka replied.

     "I'll get the door," Crona said. _Kinder just to kill me, huh?_ they thought, pushing the table back aside. Free busted through the door with a shopping cart, Crona barely dodging it in time. They looked out the door to what was going on outside. There wasn't really anyone or anything around since the lab was in a more secluded location, no, wait, there were a few people just idly shuffling around. One seemed partially decomposed, the other having a bite wound on their exposed shoulder. Medusa yanked Crona back in the lab by the collar and put the table back in front of the door.

     "From now until I give further notice, nobody is going in or out of this lab," Medusa proclaimed. "Understand?"

     "Yes, Lady Medusa," everyone else said in unison.

     "Now let's see what's in this cart," Medusa said. Since both she and Free were already standing by it, Crona and Eruka figured they'd both walk up to check out the stock. There were cans of food stacked to the brim of the cart. Free had clearly used his size, toughness, and immortality to his advantage getting these, and Medusa clearly seemed impressed. There were cans of vegetables, cans of fruit, cans of meat, razors, soap, a four-pack of toothbrushes, a thing of dental floss, and some toilet paper. Medusa looked relieved at first that Free didn't forget any of the basics, but then she began to look at the load of stuff like something was missing.

     "How in the world did you forget water?" Medusa asked, starting to remove the cans and stuff from the cart.

     "I, uh…" Free replied. "I..."

     "Save your breath, there's no good excuse for forgetting _water_ ," Medusa replied. "Hurry and go back to the store before it all gets picked over."

     "Got it," Free said, pushing the table back away from the door and heading back out again.

     "I'm going to watch our dinner," Eruka said, walking off back towards the kitchen.

     "Fine by me," Medusa replied. "Crona, help me pack the rest of our supplies for when we head out."

     "Head out?" Crona asked. "How soon will that be?"

     "Either when we get breached, or when we run out of perishable food," Medusa replied. "No sense staying here when we could go forward with my plans to revive the Kishin and create a double apocalypse," she said. Ragnarok had hit the nail right on the head with that one. It didn't surprise Crona in the slightest that Medusa wanted things to end up this way. In fact, they could bet that the only thing Medusa would find upsetting about creating an apocalypse of the living dead was that she didn't do it on purpose.

 

     Medusa and Crona walked down to one of Medusa's many storage rooms, where Medusa picked up four backpacks and an unused tent. So unused, it was still in the box. With the price tag still on it. _Maybe if Lady Medusa had never gotten into the whole experimentation thing, I could have been raised normally, and we probably could have gone camping with that tent,_ Crona thought. _Oh wait, if Lady Medusa had never wanted to do any sort of experiments, I would never have been born._

     "Well don't just stand there," Medusa said, handing Crona the largest backpack. "Go fill this backpack with cans of food."

     "Yes, Lady Medusa," Crona replied. They walked back out to the shopping cart full of cans and stuff, Medusa no doubt trying to find the easiest way to pack a tent. Looking at the sheer volume of cans in that cart, Crona doubted they could fit them all, even in _this_ backpack. _Free must really be something,_ they thought, starting to put cans in the backpack one by one.

     "You're going too slow," Ragnarok said, grabbing a bunch of cans out of the cart and just tossing them into the backpack. "There, now it's full."

     "You dropped them on my hand," Crona replied, pulling their hand out of the bag. It looked like the beginnings of a really dark bruise were going to form, despite the lack of much pain. Crona poked at the bruise, and winced. Shrugging it off as only a minor injury, they started moving the cans in the bag around to see if they could fit another one in there. They found a smaller can that could fit, a can of turkey paté with a picture of a cat on it for some reason. _Maybe the brand mascot?_ Crona thought, opening the backpack's front pouch and squeezing a few more cans in there. _But why would a brand of canned turkey have a cat as its mascot?_ _Wait, no, THAT WAS CAT FOOD_. _Is somebody going to end up eating cat food before they got to wherever that Kishin Lady Medusa’s planning on reviving was?_

     Before Crona could think about who it would most likely be, the power went out. There was a loud expletive coming from the room Medusa was in. Crona and Eruka both had the same idea to go run to where Medusa was to see if anything else was wrong. And midway through the hall, Medusa sped past them to another room, one with a mini-fridge and some weird stuff in jars. Medusa looked in the mini-fridge, and muttered another expletive.

     "Crona, go down to the basement and check the backup generator for me," Medusa said, handing Crona a flashlight. "Free isn't back, is he?"

     "I don't think so, ribbit," Eruka replied.

     "Damn, I needed him to freeze these," Medusa said.

     "Freeze what?" Eruka asked.

     "All the ova from my female subjects so incase anything bad happened... Crona, what the hell are you still standing there for?" Medusa asked. "Go check on the backup generator!"

     "Yes, Lady Medusa, I'm sorry!" Crona replied out of reflex.

 

     Crona ran down to the basement as fast as their legs and their dress would allow them. Flipping on the flashlight, they looked around the room. Several of the infected corpses were inside, just shuffling about. Which meant the lab was compromised. Crona didn't have time to think, only to act.

     "Let's go, Ragnarok," Crona said, putting the flashlight in their mouth. Ragnarok transformed, but Crona wasn't going to just hack at the undead like they were regular humans. Eruka said their bites can turn someone into one of them, and dying on the first day of the apocalypse... well, Crona didn't think they were pathetic enough to do that. Pathetic, yes. But not _that_ pathetic.

     "Screech Alpha!" Crona shouted, or at least tried to. It didn't come out very clear with a flashlight in their mouth, but it was enough for Ragnarok to understand. But he didn't act.

     "Just cut them up normally, we don't want to destroy the generator and get ourselves killed, dumbass!" Ragnarok yelled. Crona grumbled something, and walked down the rest of the basement stairwell. _Don't spot me, don't spot me,_ they thought. They tried not to let their hands shake too much, losing their grip would be fatal. The room smelled of death and rotting flesh, disgusting and unpleasant. Stepping quietly through the basement so that nothing could hear them, Crona held up Ragnarok's blade in a defensive position, the flashlight in their mouth muffling a small whimper. But that small noise was enough to attract the infected's attention. All of them turned their heads over toward Crona, blank, rotting, eyes seeming like they could stare right through them. How many were there, six or seven? It was either cut them to shreds or be eaten alive, so, running up to the first one with a blade pointed right at it, Crona chose the former. Its body vanished, leaving behind no soul. Crona paused for a second. That wasn't right. When you kill things, they leave behind their souls. Why didn't this thing have one?

     Crona heard a groan right behind them, and turned right around to see the rest of the infected fast approaching them. But after cutting down the first one, they weren't afraid anymore. The infected seemed to be much easier to kill than they expected.

     "Did you all forget that corpses are supposed to stay dead?" Crona asked, cutting the second one right in two. Then they ran to cut down a third one, and a fourth. Fifth. Sixth. Seventh. And then they were all dead, none of them dropping a single soul. The room still had a lingering and putrid smell of rotten flesh, that didn't seem like it would go away anytime soon.

     "What? No souls?" Ragnarok asked, going back out of sword form and taking the flashlight out of Crona's mouth. He shined it over to the generator, which not only was banged up, but the cord was chewed up, with another corpse lying next to it, apparently electrocuted. Ragnarok transformed again, the flashlight clattering to the floor. And Crona stabbed the corpse through the head, just to make sure it was dead. A splash of red blood hit their ankles and the white tops of their shoes.

     "Oh, they don't _all_ bleed black," Crona said. "Just the one that was Lady Medusa's past subject did."

     "Also, the generator's not gonna work anytime soon," Ragnarok added.

     "I know," Crona replied, noticing a crawlspace revealed by the flashlight's beam. Their fight-or-flight reflexes began to calm down. "Ragnarok, look. It's where they got in."

     "How long's that been there?" Ragnarok asked, right as another one of the infected began to crawl through. Crona hacked it open before looking around for something that they could use to block the crawlspace. There was nothing big and sturdy enough so before anyone else could come through, Crona just ran back up the stairs. They smashed the top stair with Ragnarok's blade, wood splinters flying everywhere. A second hit, a third hit, a fourth hit, and the stairs were reduced to a pile of rubble on the floor.

     "What is all that racket?" Medusa yelled, running in.

     "We've been breached," Crona replied. "And they destroyed the generator."

     They knew that wasn't anywhere near what Medusa wanted to hear, but they'd get in more trouble for lying. Medusa's brow furrowed with rage, and Crona trembled with fear. "Don't shoot the messenger" was not a phrase they knew for certain Medusa would follow. She slammed the basement door, frightening Crona even further. Medusa locked the basement door from the outside, and to Crona's pleasant surprise, she just sighed.

     "Well, Free's back from the store empty-handed and Eruka's plating dinner," Medusa said. "As soon as we're done eating, we're headed out. You're either with me or you're _dead_."

     "I'm with you," Crona replied. Medusa smiled, walking off back down the hall. "Not like I have a choice," Crona muttered under their breath. They didn't know what they would do without her guidance, but it wasn't like she would let them be able to choose any other path. They were born to serve her, or rather, it felt like they were born to fail her. Maybe Crona could prove they were good enough once everyone headed out on this journey, finally prove they were good enough. And maybe Medusa would change her mind about them being a failure, worthless, and kinder just to kill.

 

     "Okay everyone, help yourselves to some all-our-perishables stew!" Eruka exclaimed.

     "What's in it?" Crona asked, as Eruka poured them a bowl.

     "You fucking dumbass," Ragnarok replied. "It's all our perishables."

     "It's really good," Free said, shoveling in another mouthful.

     "It's not fully cooked since the power went out, but it's cooked enough that it won't kill us," Medusa added. Crona took a spoon from the counter and sat in the corner away from the others to eat. Some of Ragnarok's helping dropped on their head as he wolfed it down. _Great, he better not vomit,_ Crona thought. They knew from experience that after it had been a while since someone ate, the first meal should be eaten slowly and carefully, and it must not be too large. They had to work themself up to larger meals. Crona took the first spoonful from their bowl and tasted it. It was barely lukewarm, but it tasted delicious. They weren't sure whether it was genuinely delicious or just "haven't eaten in an indeterminate amount of days" delicious. How long were they in that dark room again? Well, they paid no mind to that, Medusa would tell them eventually. For now, they would just keep eating this stew until they couldn't eat any longer. Then if there was any left over in the bowl, Ragnarok would get it so it wasn't wasted.

 

     Crona was unable to finish the whole bowl. The stew didn't taste bad, but the temperature made it become less and less appealing. And they felt like they couldn't eat another bite only halfway in. They handed the bowl of cold stew to Ragnarok, who ate the rest of it within seconds.

     "Okay, everyone, I have an announcement to make!" Medusa said. "We have been breached via the basement, and we must leave for Death City now before they find a way past the door and into the rest of the complex."

     "Breached?" Free asked.

     "Ribbit, how long ago was this?" Eruka asked. Medusa ignored their questions and left her dirty dishes on the table.

     "We're wasting time as it is, leave your dishes and get moving," Medusa replied, getting the few bottles of water from the fridge that they had. Ragnarok held both his and Crona's bowls up in the air before throwing them down onto the ground. Both bowls loudly shattered, shards flying everywhere. Crona screamed, blocking their face with their arms. Ragnarok laughed at them.

     "Hurry up or we're leaving you behind!" Medusa shouted. Crona got up and tried to step around all the broken glass on their way out. They followed Medusa and the others to the main entrance, where Medusa had set out all their supplies, the shopping cart still partially empty. Eruka began moving the table out of the way of the front door, and Free had a look on his face like he had an idea. Ragnarok transformed back into sword form, in anticipation of what was outside.

     "Hey kid, ever ridden in a shopping cart before?" Free asked. Medusa gave him a nasty look.

     "No, I haven't," Crona replied.

     Free walked over to where Crona stood and lifted them up by the armpits.

     "What the?" Crona asked. "Let go of me!"

     Free ran back over to the shopping cart and set Crona down in an empty space in the basket. Slightly disoriented and clutching their sword, Crona watched as Eruka ran back down the hall to get Tadpole Jackson.

     "Free, what's the point of doing that?" Medusa asked.

     "I figured the shopping cart would be useful, and with the kid and their sword in it, we've pretty much got ourselves a weaponized vehicle," Free replied. Eruka then rode in on Tadpole Jackson, signaling she was ready. Medusa put the rest of the backpacks in the shopping cart, making it very cramped in there for Crona. One of the snake tattoos on Medusa's arms began to move, slithering down off her hand and manifesting in a large, three-dimensional form. Medusa got on top of its head and busted through the door with it, Eruka and Tadpole Jackson soon following out.

     "Eruka, set up your bombs and destroy the lab. We have to get to a shipyard," Medusa said. "Stealing a boat is our only practical hope to get across the Atlantic and to America."

     _If stealing a boat was Lady Medusa's practical solution, I don't even want to know her impractical one._

     "Ready, kid?" Free asked. This was the point Crona became suspicious that he didn't know their name. But it wasn't important enough to bother him about, they were pretty sure they could deal with being called "the kid."

     "Ready," Crona replied. Free grabbed on to the cart's handle and charged as fast as he could, Eruka casting a swarm of Tadpole Bombs all throughout the lab.

     "Are you sure about this, Lady Medusa?" Eruka asked.

     "I have no need for that lab anymore," Medusa replied. "Useless research will always get discarded."

     "Okay then," Eruka said. And with a slight motion of her hand, the Tadpole Bombs exploded, demolishing the lab and starting Medusa and her followers' journey with a bang. Crona flinched, covering their ears as Free ran with the cart further and further from the explosion. He was immortal, but they weren't, so getting caught in the blast would not have been pleasant. Crona uncovered their ears and looked back at the smoldering remains of the lab that had been their home, where they grew up. This was a goodbye of sorts, maybe even good riddance. But now the only way they could look was forward. It had only been a matter of hours since Eruka came in and reported Medusa about the infected, but the streets were already filled with more of them then they were living people. Crona readied Ragnarok to possibly hack through a few if necessary, but Medusa led the group so they'd avoid going through the most infested parts of town.

 

     But they sped right through town, avoiding any sort of encounters as they followed the long roads to the coast. Cars sat abandoned along the highway, some with doors still open. Medusa and Eruka sped right over the traffic, leaving Free and Crona having to catch up. Crona found themselves hacking at more car mirrors than the infected so Free could weave through the highway until they finally reached a place where it wasn’t so crowded.

     "Okay, now we can speed up again!" Free exclaimed, starting to pick up the pace. He ran as fast as his legs could go, the cart soon speeding up along with him. As the area around them became more and more desolate, Crona decided to relax a bit, to let their guard down and enjoy the ride. Despite it being scary out, and the future looking bleak, the ride made them smile. Something about the wind in their hair and the wide open space around them. They felt like they were free, for the fleeting moments until Free caught back up to Medusa. Then she'd suck the fun out of the ride and everything would return to misery. Not that there would be any chance for improvement in this fucked-up world.

     "Hey, Ragnarok, how long do you think we’ll survive out here?" Crona asked.

     "Beats me," Ragnarok replied. "Probably not gonna be long, knowing your luck."

     "I hope we at least don't die too painfully." Crona sighed.


	2. Across The Ocean

     “There they are, our tickets across the ocean,” Medusa said, looking over the horizon from the top of a hill. The shipyard was just at the bottom, and from the looks of it, there were several different boats to choose from. _Looks like not everyone has the same idea as Lady Medusa,_ Crona thought. _Well, that’s good for us, at least._

     “Eruka,” Free panted, “can I… have a turn on Tadpole Jackson? I’ve been walking this shopping cart for ten hours.”

     “Of course,” Eruka replied, dismounting Tadpole Jackson. “It’s not too far for me to walk from here,” she added. Free sighed with relief, and let go of the cart handle. Crona, still sitting in the cart, was about to get out of it so they could walk down to the shipyard themself, until it started to move.

    “Um, Free?” Crona asked, watching Free walk up to Tadpole Jackson. But it was no use. Gravity had already kicked in, and the shopping cart began to pick up speed as it went down the hill.

    “The supplies!” Medusa shouted.

    “And your kid!” Free added.

    “THE SUPPLIES!” Medusa yelled, running down the hill after the speeding cart. Crona faced away, clutching Ragnarok against themself even though they knew a sword wasn’t going to do them much good. Both meister and weapon screamed as the cart went further and further down the hill, straight towards the shoreline.

    “You still can’t swim, right?” Ragnarok asked.

    “You know I haven’t even been in the water!” Crona replied. “Wait, do baths count?”

    “No!” Ragnarok exclaimed. “Now shut the fuck up unless you’ve got some good last words before we land in the water and drown!”

    “Vector Plate!” Medusa shouted. A black arrow appeared on the ground in front of Crona and Ragnarok, pointing away from the water and towards a pile of garbage in front of a dumpster.

    “What is she doing-“ Ragnarok began, right as the cart hit the arrow and Crona and Ragnarok, along with the shopping cart and everyone’s supplies, were thrown right into the garbage. Ragnarok hardened the black blood so Crona hopefully wouldn’t get hurt too bad. If they did, Medusa would probably put them out of their misery and both meister and weapon would die.

    “Crona, Ragnarok!” Medusa shouted, jumping onto the plate so she could land by them. “Are the cans dented?”

    “I don’t think so,” Crona replied, climbing out of the cart. Medusa ignored them to check on the supplies, then Eruka and Free began to make their way over. Crona hoped nothing was broken, because if Medusa blamed them for it, it wouldn’t be pretty.

    “Well, looks like we’re all going to have to share one tent, because the second one’s broken,” Medusa said. “Seems that it’s the only thing that took a sizeable impact.”

    “Uh, how big is the tent we’ll have to share?” Free asked. “I’m a pretty big guy, so we might not all fit.”

    “We _might_ be fine if Eruka transforms into a frog,” Medusa replied. “Now, where’s a decent-sized boat?”

     The group scanned the shipyard. The choices seemed to be large cargo vessels, smaller tugboats, a yacht, and several fishing boats. The cargo vessels were much too large, the tugboats didn’t look robust enough to handle a transatlantic journey, the yacht was definitely too small and had no room for personal space, and it was difficult to assess the fishing boats as they varied in size. Crona hoped that Medusa would pick something with at least enough room for everyone to have some personal space. Crona knew they’d need some if they were going to spend the next… however long this part of the journey would be, stuck on a boat with people. Specifically, these people. To be even more specific, Medusa. They doubted they’d be able to deal with her for that long without some space.

     “What about that one?” Free asked, pointing to one of the cargo vessels.

     “Too big,” Medusa replied.

     “That one?” Eruka asked, pointing to one of the fishing boats.

     “Too small, but at least you’re on the right track with a fishing boat,” Medusa replied. “If we get one of those and it’s fully equipped, we can obtain plenty of fresh fish and stretch our food supply out.”

     “Why isn’t this place crawling with the infected?” Ragnarok asked. “I don’t really see any.”

     “There’s one over there,” Crona replied, pointing at one. “The rest must be in the boats or something.”

     “I’ll handle it!” Free said, transforming into his more wolf-like form and running off towards the infected one. While Free was dealing with that, Medusa seemed to find a vessel that caught her eye. It was a medium-sized trawler with ample deck space, and it did not have even a scratch on its hull or any infected on deck.

    “Looks like we found our ride,” Medusa said, right as Free ran back over to the group.

    “Ribbit, how do we get on?” Eruka asked. “It’s anchored, but there’s no access ramp or anything.”

    “Then we’ll have to make our own,” Medusa replied. “Free, fetch me that crate and the thing of plywood over there,” she said. Free ran over to get the crate and a ten-foot-long sheet of plywood. “Vector Plate!”

    Medusa cast another arrow on the plywood, pointing it at the trawler’s deck. She grabbed Tadpole Jackson by the tail and shoved him onto the arrow. He was launched right onto the deck, without fatal injury. After Medusa launched the supplies over, the rest of the group knew what they had to do. Eruka went next. She hesitated for a second before launching herself off the arrow and onto the deck. One of the heels broke off her boot and her hat fell off, but she suffered no injury. Free followed suit, sticking the landing without a hitch. Medusa went next, also receiving no injuries. All that was left were Crona and Ragnarok, who had no choice but to go together. Despite seeing the rest of their party make the landings without a hitch, Crona had an uneasy feeling in the pit of their stomach.

     “There has to be another way,” they said, remembering their experiences with Medusa’s Vector Plates in the past. Every single time she’s used them since Crona was little, it’s always been to send them away from her, regardless of whether or not they’d painfully hit walls or the hard floor in the dark room. Crona took a step towards the arrow, before taking a step right back. They held their hands close to their chest in fear.

    “If you’re gonna be such a pussy about it I’m just gonna use the Black Dragon to fly you over so we aren’t ditched,” Ragnarok replied, not wanting to take any chances. He left his sword form to transform into the Black Dragon. Crona winced in pain, trying to hold back screams as Ragnarok’s face became more reptilian-shaped, and his arms turned into gigantic black wings. Since the Black Dragon was Ragnarok’s largest form, it needed the most blood. Ragnarok flew himself and Crona up to the deck, and returned to his usual semi-humanoid form once they touched down. Medusa sighed, and made the Vector Plate on the plywood vanish. Eruka put her hat back on and took her boots off, throwing them overboard.

     “Search the entire boat for zombies,” Medusa said. “Kill them and any non-helmsman crew members you may find. If the helmsman is on board we will hold them hostage until we reach the US, then after that there will be no sense keeping them alive, so that’s when I will personally kill them. Yes, Crona?”

    “What’s a helmsman?” Crona asked. _You use “they” for a helmsman we’re not sure even exists, but…_

    “The person who steers the boat,” Medusa groaned. “Any other stupid questions?”

    “Yeah, Crona, any other stupid questions?” Ragnarok asked, uncomfortably smooshing Crona’s face in. Crona shook their head no.

    “Then it’s settled,” Medusa said. “Free, you check the bridge, I will check the crew’s quarters, and Eruka, you take Crona with you to check the fish storage and fuel supply. Since it is armed and you are not, Crona will at least be _some_ use to you.”

    “We’ll get right on it, ribbit,” Eruka replied. “Come on.”

    “Okay,” Crona said, following Eruka below deck. The lights were off, and neither of them had a flashlight with them. Eruka hit the light switch, but it did not work. There was a soft whirring noise.

    “Come on, come on,” she said, repeatedly flicking the light switch on and off. Eruka let out a little whimper in fear. “Don’t tell me this thing has no power,” she said, as the soft whirring noise kept cutting on and off.

     “Wait, Eruka…” Crona said, as the whirring continued to cut on and off. “what’s that sound?” they asked. The whirring stayed on, becoming louder and more menacing. Crona’s hands began to tremble.

     “I…” Eruka replied, flicking the switch off. “I…”

     “You’re turning the goddamn fan on and off,” Ragnarok groaned. He hit the switch next to it, and sure enough, a flickering fluorescent light came on all throughout the hallway. Not that that was any less creepy. It looked like most of the bulbs hadn’t been changed out in a while, like one could go out at any moment.

    “Oh,” Eruka said, taking a few cautious steps down the hall.

    “Ragnarok, you should probably transform just in case,” Crona said. Ragnarok grumbled something too quiet for Crona to hear, and transformed into a sword. Crona kept a firm and cautious grip on his hilt, and followed Eruka down the hall to where they could find the fuel supply.

     No infected were in there to both Crona and Eruka’s relief, so Eruka went right over to see how much fuel this trawler had.

    “It’s just been refueled!” Eruka said. “And it looks like there’s surplus, ribbit.”

    “Enough to cross the Atlantic?” Crona asked.

    “And then some,” Eruka replied.

    “Hey, Eruka, can you check for updog while you’re over there?” Ragnarok asked. _Don’t tell me he’s doing this…_ Crona thought. _Now is just not the time._

“You want me to check for what?” Eruka asked in return, looking back over at Crona and Ragnarok.

    “He’s messing with-“

    “You know, updog!” Ragnarok shouted, drowning out Crona’s warning.

    “No, I don’t know,” Eruka replied, smirking. “Explain it to me.”

    “Oh come on, you’d have to know what _updog_ is if you ever go on a boat like this,” Ragnarok said.

    “Are you sure?” Eruka asked. “Never heard of it.” _She’s messing with him back. This’ll take all day unless somebody here takes one for the team._ Crona sighed, regretting what they were about to do.

    “What’s updog?” they grumbled.

    “Not much, what’s up with you?” Ragnarok replied, laughing.

    “What’s up is that Lady Medusa gave us a responsibility that we have to uphold, especially now,” Crona sternly said.

    “Come on, Crona, I’m just trying to lighten things up,” Ragnarok said. “What, you want everyone else to be as miserable as you always are all the time?” he asked. Crona tried to ignore him. It was obvious he was just looking to provoke them like he always did.

    “Crona’s right, we shouldn’t take too long down here,” Eruka replied. “Come on, we still have to check the fish storage.

   The fish storage room, like the fuel stores, didn’t have a single infected corpse in it. Eruka and Crona both sighed with relief.

    “Oh look, another big fat sack of nothing,” Ragnarok said. “Not like any of the infected could’ve even gotten on this boat anyway.”

    “We should head back to the deck and wait for the others,” Eruka said. Crona nodded.

    “I can’t wait to just get my pillow out and find a good corner to curl up in,” they said to themself. If there weren’t any infected on the boat, there wouldn’t be any for however long until they crossed the Atlantic. And even then, no guarantee there’d be any once they reached America. So maybe this wouldn’t be so bad from here on out.

   “Crona, you left your pillow at the lab, it’s been blown to bits with everything else,” Ragnarok said. Crona’s eyes widened in shock.

    “Damn it, how could I have forgot to bring it?” they said, feeling something horrible well up in the pit of their stomach. “Wait, there are pillows in the crew’s quarters, I’ll just get a new one,” they said, running off away from Eruka towards the crew’s quarters _. It won’t be the same, but at least it’ll be better than nothing. It won’t be the same, but at least it’ll be better than nothing,_ Crona thought, throwing open the door. Empty. The crew’s quarters were empty. Medusa had already been there, and there were no signs of death, so the crew just wasn’t on this boat in the first place. But none of the crew bunks had any pillows on them, as Crona soon found out by frantically searching.

    “No, no, no,” they said to themself, running back up to the deck to find Medusa holding the pillows from the crew’s quarters. And throwing them overboard.

    “What are you doing?” Crona asked, trying and failing to sound as calm as they could.

    “Keeping you useful,” Medusa replied, tossing the last pillow into the sea. “If there was even _one_ of these here you’d latch onto it because of your babyish and pathetic little ‘coping mechanism’. You have to be on guard at all times now.”

    Crona sat down on the deck against the bridge’s outer wall, holding their knees up against their chest. _I don’t think she’d be willing to cut off my legs to prove her point._ Medusa grumbled something under her breath, and Free walked out of the bridge.

    “You took your sweet time,” Medusa said. “Everyone else is here.”

    “I don’t think we can start the boat,” Free replied. “The manual here says we need to put keys in the ignition and whoever usually drives this thing took their keys with them when they last got off.”

    “I’ll be back in a second,” Medusa said. “That idiot hasn’t ever heard of hotwiring, has he?” she muttered. Eruka walked back over to Crona and Free after she was done checking on Tadpole Jackson.

    “Should we draw straws to see who’s gonna ask for an explanation of this whole apocalypse thing?” she asked. “Lady Medusa’s obviously connected since one of her previous test subjects came out of his grave after being dead for at least how long Crona’s been alive.”

    “I’ll do it,” Free said. “I’m immortal, so she can’t do anything to me. Eruka, you’re snaked, and something tells me Lady Medusa doesn’t like the kid,” he added. Crona almost opened their mouth to argue his last point, but something in their gut told them that it would be useless. They already knew he was right. Medusa definitely hated them for being such an awful child. Whatever they do, it’s never enough for her.

     The boat started up, and Medusa drove it out from the docks and to the open sea.

     “Seems like Lady Medusa’s gonna be driving,” Crona said.

     “Not for the whole ride,” Ragnarok interjected. “No way she’s not gonna make at least one of us drive it eventually.”

    “Yeah, you’re right,” Free said. “You think now’s the best time to ask about the explanation?”

    “Is everyone here a coward?” Ragnarok asked. “Just do it so we fucking _know_.”

    “Okay, but you three have to come with me,” Free replied. “Us underlings gotta stick together, y’know. Have each other’s backs.”

    It was kind of a comforting thought that the others would stick with Crona. They’d never really had anyone do that without being forced.

    Crona got back up to their feet and was the last one to enter the bridge. Medusa turned her head to look at everyone, her glare seeming to seep right through them.

    “What is it that you all want?” Medusa asked. “To drive the boat?”

    “No,” Free began, putting his foot down in determination. “We want _answers._ How did this infection thing start and what’s your connection to it?”

    “How should I know?” Medusa asked. “If it’s my doing, it wasn’t on purpose.”

    “Spit it out!” Ragnarok shouted.

     “ _Maybe_ an ingredient in one of my earlier Black Blood prototypes caused an extremely abnormal reaction?” Medusa guessed. _She has as much of an idea as the rest of us._ “I mean, it’s not like these zombies are like the one Professor Stein created at DWMA at all. That bastard knew how to raise the dead near-perfectly, yet something I inadvertently could have caused ends up like this?”

    “Lady Medusa,” Free said, raising his eyebrow. Crona didn’t understand what he was doing with that, what was he implying?

    “How many were in this Perseus guy’s generation?” Crona asked. _That’s innocuous enough of a question that she probably wouldn’t snap at me too bad over._

    “Probably lots, since the infected spread through town so quickly,” Ragnarok said.

    “That’s not entirely incorrect,” Medusa replied. “There were many in Perseus’s generation because I chose to kidnap abandoned children for my experiments back then. Any baby or child that wouldn’t have had much of a record so I’d be less likely to get caught. Unfortunately, people did begin to catch on after it turned out one of them _wasn’t_ abandoned, so I stopped kidnapping and decided I would grow my own children if this generation failed. And it did, because some of the ingredients in the Black Blood recipe I used back then turned out to be toxic when combined and injected into the bloodstream. So I went around the world and buried every last one of that generation’s failures in strategic locations so they’d be harder to trace to me. I kept Perseus close by, since he was my favorite.”

     “So if they all were infected, then there’d probably be some once we get to the US?” Eruka asked.

    “Unless DWMA or the military was able to take them out by then.” Medusa replied. “And since they were all nearing adulthood when I injected them, they’d be at full strength, so it’s not like they were the same age as Crona was when it received the Black Blood.”

    “If they were injected that old, why’d Crona get the Black Blood so young?” Ragnarok asked. “They were a baby, Medusa!”

    “It’s easier to make new formulas in baby-sized amounts, plus there wouldn’t be the irritating loss of working on something for sixteen or seventeen years and it turning out to be a dud,” Medusa replied. “Practicality, Ragnarok. Practicality.”

    “So that’s your theory on how this all started?” Free asked. “A botched experiment?”

    “It’s as good of a theory as any,” Medusa replied, shrugging her shoulders. “Either that or a necromancer witch surfaced to wreak some havoc. Both are plausible theories. Whichever one, I do not care as long as we get to revive the Kishin.”

    “Which’ll be when exactly?” Ragnarok asked.

    “It’ll most likely take about three weeks just to get to New York Harbor,” Medusa replied. “Provided that’s the point where we end up. Then after that it’ll take however long it does to get to Death City, then since I’ll have such a long absence by then I might have to regain DWMA’s trust, so it’s hard to say.”

    “Three weeks… just on the boat?” Crona muttered to themself.

    “If we’re all quick and efficient we could get this done within the year,” Medusa said. “But if civilization hasn’t collapsed in the US, we’ll just end up being able to do this in about two months including the boat journey. Now get out unless one of you knows how to drive a fishing trawler.”

 Since Crona had never been on a trawler before and definitely hadn’t driven one, they left the bridge. Eruka and Free stayed, Eruka to read up on the manual and Free to ask Medusa about the group’s water situation. Crona had almost forgotten about that. And after ten hours in the desert with the only thing they’d had to drink being a single bottle of water, it probably wouldn’t have done them much good to keep forgetting.

    “Okay, I’ll get some buckets!” Free said, running out from the bridge and going below deck.

    “What’s he getting those for?” Ragnarok asked. Crona shrugged their shoulders and walked over to the edge of the railing. They looked out at the docks as the trawler sailed further and further away. It wouldn’t take very long for them to be out on the open ocean, which would be the only view they’d have for the next few weeks. Ragnarok reached his arm past Crona and gripped onto the railing as hard as he could.

    “Are you afraid we’d fall off?” Crona asked, noticing how the railing came up nearly to their shoulders. There’d be no way they’d fall off unless they deliberately tried to or they hit a storm that was just too bad.

   “Idiot!” Ragnarok replied, smacking Crona across the face with his free hand. “There’s no way we would,” he said, grabbing their face and smooshing it around.

     “Buckets on deck!” Free shouted, tossing two big plastic buckets, one blue and one yellow, onto the deck. The clattering startled Crona, and made Ragnarok briefly stop his harassment. Medusa walked out from the bridge, evidently leaving Eruka to drive the boat.

    “Good, now fill the blue one up with tiny chunks of ice,” Medusa said. “In a few hours, we’ll have water.”

    “What’s the yellow one for?” Crona asked. “More water?”

    “It’s probably the piss bucket,” Ragnarok replied.

    “That’s one way to put it,” Medusa said. “I’m going to take a short nap, if any of you are going to use that bucket, make sure to dump the contents overboard once you’re done.”

    “I’m gonna go sleep too,” Free added. “Been up at least twenty hours or something.”

    Medusa and Free walked back down below deck. Crona didn’t follow them, being only slightly tired. Since they woke up at about five-thirty in the evening, they were probably the most rested out of the group. The sun began to rise over the horizon.

    “Wait…” Crona said, looking over at the sun. “Okay, I woke up really, really late, dinner was also a bit late, we had to gather all these supplies and stuff, it took at least ten hours to get to the shipyard… oh.”

    “Did you lose track of the concept of time again?” Ragnarok asked, shoving Crona’s shoulder. He then flicked them in the nose as hard as he could. And it really stung. Crona covered their nose and mouth with their hand, hoping that Ragnarok didn’t leave a mark again. They hated getting bruises on their face. “Well, did you?” Ragnarok asked, grabbing Crona’s head and shaking it around.

    “Stop it already,” Crona said. “It’s been a rough day… uh, well, night, and…” They paused for a second. “Wait, how long has everyone else been up?”

    “Medusa’s probably been up for a whole twenty-four hours,” Ragnarok replied. “She always gets up early to do whatever. And Eruka might also have been up for that long doing her bidding. You think she’s gonna pass out on the steering wheel or something?”

    “That’s not good!” Crona exclaimed, walking back up to the bridge and opening the door. “Eruka, how long have you been awake?”

    “Only about four hours,” Eruka replied. “I took a nap on Tadpole Jackson while we were following Lady Medusa here, so I’ll be fine until she takes the helm again.”

    “Oh, okay,” Crona said, walking back out the door and down to the deck. They sat down against the wall, curling up again. Ragnarok retreated back inside their back, probably to get some rest of his own. Crona held their knees against their chest, and buried their face in their knees. They didn’t know whether to try and keep themself awake until night fell again, or just try and take a nap in a few hours and wreck their sleep schedule. If they didn’t match the others, Medusa would probably just cast them aside. Probably overboard, if she got angry enough about it. 

    “I should at least try to return to normal,” Crona thought out loud, looking back up in hopes the sunlight would help. They sat there trying to admire the ocean view for at least half an hour before they began to nod off from boredom. Right as they were about to fall asleep, they felt something bump them. Crona made a small yelp in surprise, turning around to see what it was. It was Tadpole Jackson, and the noise Crona made had startled him.

    “No, it’s… okay,” Crona said, reaching a hand out. “You just startled me.”

    Tadpole Jackson paused for a second, before floating off to the other side of the deck.

    “Aw,” Crona sighed. They sat there for a second to see if he’d come back. He didn’t, so they got back up to get some food. “Maybe eating something will keep me awake.”

    It was about breakfast time anyway, so Medusa probably wouldn’t get too mad about Crona eating without permission. They’d just take something small, so it wouldn’t be too bad. Crona walked over to the bags of supplies, and unzipped the backpack full of cans. _No,_ _I can’t just take whatever I want_ , they thought, zipping the backpack back up and making their way towards the crew’s quarters. _I should at least ask first, or else I might not even get to eat again for most of the rest of this boat trip from hell._

    “Lady Medusa, may I please have a _small_ can of food?” Crona asked. Medusa grumbled something incomprehensible, the only word Crona was able to make out being “can have.”

    “Can have what?”

    Medusa inhaled sharply, getting out of bed and storming up to the deck. She came back a few minutes later with a can that had the label torn off and a fork.

    “Don’t bother me again, you’re lucky I’m even letting you have _this,_ ” Medusa said, crawling back into one of the pillowless beds. “Put the supplies in the fish storage room when you’re done.”

    Crona looked at the small can of food and went back on deck to eat it without bothering their mother any further. They pulled open the tab at the top of the can to reveal something solid and brown. It smelled like meat, so Crona took the first forkful. It squished like some sort of paté.

   “It’s turkey,” they said, taking another bite. Something seemed off about it though. _Turkey paté, turkey paté..._ “This is the cat food, isn’t it?”

   Crona sighed, wondering if they should resign themselves to finish the rest. They started to look through the rest of the cans just in case their hunch was wrong and this was the type of turkey paté meant for human consumption. There was another can with a picture of a cat on it in the bag, and Crona sighed with relief.

    They finished the paté in a few minutes flat, before taking the rest of the supplies down to the fish storage room. Bag by bag, trip by trip, and when they took the last bag down, a can rolled out onto the floor. Crona chased it down and picked it up. There was something stuck to the side. It was the label for the cat food can, reading _Turkey Paté_ , plain as day. Peeling it off, Crona found out the can was actually full of pineapple chunks, meaning the label from the cat food can was torn off and ended up stuck here thanks to some leftover adhesive.

   “Don’t tell me I just…” Crona began, setting the can of pineapple chunks back in the bag. Doubt began to fill them, and so did the throbbing pain in their back. “Thank goodness nobody was around to know in case that really was…” They felt their skin about to burst open, and staggered in their stance, dropping the bag to the floor. Their screaming drowned out all the white noise from the fluorescent lights as Ragnarok burst through their back.

   “Just what?” Ragnarok asked, resting one of his hands on Crona’s head.

   “Nothing,” Crona replied. Ragnarok grabbed Crona’s chin with his other hand and pulled their chin up towards his face. “I said nothing, what are you doing?”

   “Your breath smells like turkey or something,” Ragnarok said, letting go of Crona’s face. _Please don’t make the connection._ “Oh my God, did you eat the fucking _cat food_?”

   “It’s not what you think, Lady Medusa tore off the labe-“

   “Cat food eater! Cat food eater!” Ragnarok shouted, punching Crona in the head as he said it. Crona’s headache grew worse.

    “Ow, cut it out!” Crona said, trying to block Ragnarok’s punches. But their skinny little hands didn’t do much good. Medusa stormed into the fish storage room.

    “Why must you two ensure I don’t get any sleep?” she asked, seething with rage. The look on her face could set Crona off in a panic.

    “I’m so sorry, Lady Medusa,” they said, their lower lip trembling. Ragnarok put his hands up like he wasn’t doing anything.

    “I guess I’ll have to do what I’m about to do ahead of schedule,” Medusa said, venom in her words. _She’s gonna kill me_. “Be up at the bridge in five for the briefing.” _Oh, thank goodness._

    “Yes, Lady Medusa,” Crona replied, clutching tightly to their arm. Medusa left the room, and Crona could almost feel tears welling up in their eyes. “No, I shouldn’t cry,” they said, wiping off their eyes. _Not until after the briefing, at least._

Medusa gathered everyone (except for Tadpole Jackson) in the bridge, a piercing snakelike glare in her eyes. She somehow managed to get a whiteboard and some dry erase markers in there. Where they were kept, Crona didn’t know. Medusa drew a few columns and labeled them with different types of ground rules. The first one read “Priority of Lives.” This didn’t seem like a good sign at all.

    “Okay, who can tell me whose life is the most valuable here?” Medusa asked. Nobody raised their hand, knowing Medusa already had the answer in mind. “The answer is mine,” she said, writing her name at the top of the first column, before adding _“/the attache case.”_ “My life and the mission are the most important, then next up is the rest of you, decide amongst yourselves whether Eruka or Crona is more valuable, I couldn’t care less. Free’s immortal, so don’t bother trying to save his life from anything, and Tadpole Jackson’s useless except as our pack animal. Next on the list: Order of cannibalism in case it comes down to that.”

    The only name Medusa wrote in that column was “Eruka.”

    “Why are you singling me out, Lady Medusa?” Eruka asked. “Not that I’m disrespecting your judgement, it’s just…”

    “You are the only choice,” Medusa replied. “I’m too important, Free’s immortal, Tadpole Jackson is made of magic, not meat, and since a botched Black Blood experiment _could_ have been the cause of the infection, Crona and Ragnarok are probably biohazards.”

    “Also Crona’s got no meat on their bones,” Ragnarok added, holding up Crona’s arm to show everyone. “And to be honest, I’m probably inedible.”

    “I think they get it, Ragnarok,” Crona said.

    “Now, I’m not going to help you all with basic survival skills,” Medusa continued with, ignoring Crona and Ragnarok. “If you don’t know, then either figure it out for yourself or let natural selection do its work,” she said, staring directly at Crona for that last part. It was almost like daggers were piercing them, she looked so angry. _She’s still mad about not getting any sleep thanks to me,_ Crona thought, holding on to their arm and looking at the floor. Medusa didn’t say anything else, just continuing to stare at Crona. Perhaps she was expecting them to say something in return. But they weren’t going to, no, there was no need to interrupt her.

    “Make eye contact with me when I’m talking to you,” Medusa said. Crona looked up to try, but Medusa’s glare was just too intimidating. “Now, here’s the game plan: Once we make it to the East Coast, we will have to walk to Death City. This’ll take four or five months just by walking alone. Thanks to my snakes and Tadpole Jackson, we may be able to make the journey much quicker, maybe even less than three months, not counting the time we’ll have to spend replenishing our supplies in the wilderness and sleeping. So we’ll be looking at a six-month journey at least, so if you’re not prepared for this, jump off the boat. I won’t miss you.”

    After this point Crona’s attention started to break. They tried to pay attention, but they started to nod off a bit. So their focus became staying awake but at least _looking_ like they’re paying attention. And that was something they found out was hard-wired for failure. _Come on, just a little longer while she’s still talking._

“Now I really want to sleep right now so hopefully you all know what’s going to go on because I do _not_ feel like repeating myself,” Medusa said. _She sounds like she’s concluding it!_ “And it seems Crona’s _also_ too tired for a simple briefing.” _She saw right through me!_ “Eruka, keep driving the boat for a few hours until I come back. The rest of us are going to get some well-deserved rest before we figure out how to operate this boat’s trawling system.”

 

    The crew’s quarters would have been a welcome sight without _her_ being there, but voicing that would definitely do Crona more harm than good. They waited for Medusa and Free to take their bunks before they took theirs. It was the lowest bunk in a stack of three. There were protective sides to keep them from falling out should the boat hit a storm, and no pillow thanks to Medusa’s “bright” idea. Crona took off their shoes as Ragnarok went back into their back. Since Medusa was two bunks up and couldn’t see them, Crona wadded up part of the blanket and held that against them. It wasn’t perfect, but it would do. All Crona could do now was try as hard as they could to rest. Because they were absolutely, positively, _not_ looking forward to what was ahead. _I just want to disappear,_ they thought to themself.


	3. Back On Land

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to change the story rating to T because what I’ve got so far isn’t too graphic and so the fic can end up reaching a wider audience

    “Land ho!” Free shouted. And there it was, off in the distance, New York Harbor. Crona hadn’t ever even _seen_ land for the past three weeks. And they couldn’t wait to get back on it. They’d long since had enough of this boat, with its three weeks of nothing but swabbing the deck, gutting fish, and trying to stay out of Medusa’s way as much as they could. Three weeks of walking on eggshells the entire time. Not that they weren’t doing that with the rest of their life, but still…

 

    New York was big, bigger than they could ever imagine. And the buildings were so tall, taller than Florence, taller than in the town near Medusa’s old lab, taller than anywhere else they had been. It was almost overwhelming. But Crona kept Ragnarok in hand and the others close by. Just in case the infected were here, too. Looking around the city, the first things they noticed were still streets, full of abandoned cars, some with doors still ajar. There wasn’t a single light on in any of the buildings, and shards of glass from broken windows, everywhere.

   “This is strange,” Medusa said. “Such a robust city shouldn’t normally be abandoned, which means…” She was cut off by one of the infected jumping out right in front of her from behind a car. Crona instinctively sliced its head off, and the body vanished into nothing. Just like the others back “home”, it left behind no soul.

   “Which means they’re here,” Medusa said, not skipping a beat.

   “Lady Medusa, how many do you think there are?” Eruka asked.

   “I don’t care, we have to get out of here,” Medusa replied. “Since New York is home to millions, everything’s been looted by now, so there’s no use sticking around. Now don’t get lost or I’ll leave you behind,” she said, both of her snake tattoos turning into a large, flying snakes. Medusa got on one, and had Free get on the other. Eruka mounted Tadpole Jackson.

   “Crona, take that backpack off,” Ragnarok said, as Medusa, Free, and Eruka began to float off.

   “But it’s got the first aid kits in it,” Crona replied, setting Ragnarok down.

   “I didn’t mean to trash it, stupid,” Ragnarok said. “Just put it around the other way.”

   Crona slipped their backpack off their shoulders and put it back on in reverse, so it lay against their chest. Ragnarok transformed into the Black Dragon, and he and Crona took off. The city didn’t look so intimidating from a bird’s eye view, and everyone in it looked so tiny. The infected looked like ants; and Eruka on top of Tadpole Jackson, like a child’s toy.

   “Should we just fly away?” Crona asked. “No, forget I said that. She’d find us if we escaped. I can’t deal with what would happen if she did.”

   “It’s a nice thought though,” Ragnarok replied, turning in another direction to avoid a particularly tall skyscraper. “Roughing this out away from _her_. But where’d we even go after that?”

   “I don’t know, I guess we’d just live out the rest of our lives until we either get eaten alive by the infected or whatever else happens,” Crona said. “We’d just disappear without anyone knowing it.”

   “That’s depressing,” Ragnarok replied, touching down outside the city limits.

   “Maybe a little,” Crona said. They sighed. “Did we get way ahead of everyone?”

   “Yeah, from the looks of it,” Ragnarok said. “Hey, slowpokes! Where are you?” He laughed.

   “You’re lucky she can’t hear us,” Crona replied, walking off to the side of the curb and sitting down. _Did we even go in the right direction in the first place? It was west, right?_

   “You know, you _don’t_ have to stay out of the road in times like this,” Ragnarok pointed out, before returning to his weapon form. Crona clutched on to his hilt, and almost was about to just curl up and sit there. “Stay on guard, you idiot! Do you want to die?”

   Crona didn’t answer him, figuring they might as well just get up and at least _look like_ they were on guard so he wouldn’t keep yelling. If one of the infected came too close, they could always just get it in a split second anyway.

    “Oh, there she is,” Crona said, watching Medusa and the others speed by. Without even slowing down, Medusa ordered her snake to open its jaws. It approached closer and closer, looking like it was about to strike. Crona’s eyes widened in shock, instinct almost telling them to attack. Medusa’s snake clamped down around their body, not to attack them, but to carry them around like a dog carries its toy. Crona was lucky they didn’t drop Ragnarok onto the side of the road. He would’ve had their head for that for sure. And by the look in Medusa’s eyes, Crona could tell they already were in hot water.

    “Next time, _don’t_ go ahead of us when you’re carrying something so important as the first aid kit,” Medusa said. There was no concern in her words, as usual.

    “I’m sorry, Lady Medusa,” Crona replied. Another apology more out of reflex than anything. How many times had they said that to her already? And how many times did it feel like it wasn’t even going to make a difference?

 

     Crona stayed there, in the snake’s jaws, watching the scenery go by as Medusa kept going southwest. The urban area began to fade out, less and less, until Medusa had led the group completely out into the wilderness.

    “Finally, less of a chance we’ll find _them_ ,” Medusa said, as Eruka began to trail off behind them.

    “Lady Medusa, Tadpole Jackson’s tiring out!” Eruka said. Medusa stopped her two snakes. Eruka had the attache case, there was no way Medusa could let her fall behind.

    “Free, carry some more supplies,” Medusa replied. “We have to keep moving, and if Tadpole Jackson gets overburdened, we won’t be moving fast enough.”

    “I’d have thought that we wouldn’t have this problem,” Ragnarok said. “Do dried fish really weigh that much?”

    “No, I don’t think so,” Crona replied. “Lady Medusa, I don’t think I can deal with sitting in this snake’s mouth any longer, can I just sit up top with you?”

    “There’s not enough room for two people, don’t be ridiculous,” Medusa replied, shoving one of the backpacks in with them, and helping Free put a few bags in the other snake’s mouth. “Don’t eat any of the food in this bag, you’re not getting dinner for going ahead of us.”

    This was ridiculous. How much more could Crona even take? Running away and disappearing really did seem more appealing by the minute, but the only thing preventing Crona from doing so was that they had no idea how to even survive out here. No knowledge on what plants were poisonous, or what type of shelter was best to build, and only a vague knowledge of how to build a fire with sticks. If only Medusa wasn’t exhausted during that initial briefing on the boat, and gave the survival skills section. Crona would have to learn by example, by watching everyone else do it. And then, maybe, once they could remember all the necessary skills, they could go off on their own and be rid of Medusa. Like she’d ever let them do that.

 

    Everyone got back on their mounts and continued on until Medusa signaled them to stop. Out in who-knows-where, in the middle of the woods. There was just enough room to set up camp for the night, which was a good thing right now, since the sun was already setting. Crona wriggled their way out of the snake’s jaws and stretched out their back. Finally, they could walk around, or relax, or just do something that wasn’t lying around in a snake’s mouth.

    “Eruka, Crona, set up the tent,” Medusa ordered. “Free, you go test those berries for poison, and I’ll build us a fire.”

    “Test for poison?” Free asked.

    “Just pop a few in your mouth,” Medusa replied. “You’re immortal, it won’t kill you. If the berries over there are poisonous, you’ll just end up agonizingly sick for a while so the rest of us don’t die.”

    Free sighed. Being the only logical choice for the sacrifice, he walked over to a bush and plucked a few berries to eat. Eruka started rolling out a mat on the ground, while Crona began looking at the instructions for the tent.

    “I can’t read this,” they said, squinting at the letters. They were in a foreign language, one that used an alphabet Crona was completely unfamiliar with. Ragnarok returned to his more humanoid form and just turned the directions upside down. Still just as confusing.

   “These really are in a different language, I just thought you were being a dumbass again,” Ragnarok said.

   “Got everything set out?” Eruka asked.

   “What language are these in?” Crona asked, pointing to the instructions. Eruka looked over at them. She shrugged.

   “Ribbit, I don’t know,” Eruka replied. “But it’s a tent, it won’t be that hard. We can just go off the pictures.”

   Eruka and Crona began setting up the tent, Ragnarok holding the instructions for them. Eruka and Crona began inserting the tent poles through the frame, Eruka taking one side, Crona the other. They started raising the tent, checking to make sure the poles were inserted properly. But they then reached an obstacle. None of them had a mallet to bang in the pegs with.

   “Hand me the mallet, ribbit,” Eruka said.

   “There wasn’t a mallet with the tent stuff,” Crona replied. They looked over their shoulder to see Medusa rubbing some sticks together, and the fire starting. _Should I go ask her where the mallet is? No, she’ll probably just yell at me again for wasting her time or something._

“Wait, I could just stomp on the pegs really hard,” Crona suggested. Right now, they were the only one here with shoes on. They were a bit worn, but they’d have to do, since Eruka had tossed hers overboard three weeks ago, and Medusa and Free never had on shoes in the first place.

   “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Eruka said. There was a hint of relief in her voice, like she was just as wary as Crona was at the thought of asking Medusa. Eruka too had reason to fear her. An unknown amount of tiny snakes Medusa had placed inside her body. Medusa could use them to kill her at any moment, something which understandably frightened Eruka to no end.

   “Okay, I’ve got the pegs set up,” Eruka said. Crona nodded, and walked up to the first one. They stepped on it, as hard as they could, until it sunk into the ground. They repeated this process again for the second, third, fourth, and fifth pegs. And right before they were about to stomp in the sixth and final peg, Crona felt the abrupt and painful shock of a hit to the head. With a mallet.

   “Looking for this?” Ragnarok asked, waving the mallet in the air.

   “How long have you had that?” Crona asked.

   “Whole time,” Ragnarok replied. He laughed, and handed Crona the mallet. They rubbed the spot on their head where he struck them, relieved that it wasn’t enough to injure them too bad, before banging in the last peg. Off in the distance, Free groaned in pain.

   “I’ll go check on him, Eruka said. “Could you handle the rest of the tent?”

   “Sure,” Crona replied. All that was left was to set up the rain-fly. The picture in the instructions only showed the rain-fly already set up, not how to do it. _Do I just… throw this on top of the tent?_ Crona thought, noticing there were little latches on the roof of the tent. _Oh, those must be for attaching it_. Crona tried attaching the rain-fly, hoping for the best. They took a step back to admire their handiwork. _Well, there’s at least one survival thing I know how to do. Of course, it’s not like Ragnarok and I are going to have an actual tent if we run away._

    “Crona, get over here!” Medusa called out. Crona immediately ran over to her, and she handed them some dried fish. Dinner, possibly? “Take this to Free, since he’s not coming over here.” Nope, not dinner. At least not for them. _Of course she wouldn’t change her mind, she never does._

    “Yes, Lady Medusa,” Crona replied, walking back up to hand Free the dried fish. Free was lying on the ground, clutching his stomach like he was in terrible pain. Eruka was sitting by him, with a hand on his shoulder. Crona handed them each a dried fish, and Eruka the first aid backpack.

    “I’ll eat this once I’m feeling better,” Free said. “But thank you.”

    “Yeah, thanks,” Crona replied. Free looked at them strangely. _Crap, that’s not what you’re supposed to say, is it?_ Nobody ever thanked Crona much for anything they did, so they were caught off guard.

    “O…okay then,” Free said. Crona looked down at their feet in embarrassment, an uneasy feeling welling up in their stomach.

    “And thanks for the first aid kit,” Eruka added, looking through it. She took a bite of the dried fish and grimaced.

    “I thought you might need it, so…” Crona replied. “Hope it helps.” _Yes, that came out much better._

    After Medusa had finished dinner, she ordered everyone to get in the tent for the night, regardless if they had finished eating or not. This meant Free, Ragnarok and Crona were going to bed hungry tonight. But before anyone could rest, Medusa had the idea to set up a trap so if the infected were to come near, nobody would be devoured in their sleep.

    “Vector Plate!” she shouted, a circle of Vector Plates pointing out. It wasn’t much, but the circle was impenetrable. If one of the infected even stuck its foot too close over the arrows, it would get flung away from the tent, no matter how many times it tried.

     Eruka then transformed into her frog form and hopped her way into the tent. Free hobbled his way in and lay out next to one of the walls. Medusa let down her hood and crawled into the tent. Crona sat down in front of the tent and took off their shoes before going inside. Ragnarok retreated back into their back for the night, as Crona laid down in the middle of the mat, facing away from their mother. The foam mat’s texture felt uncomfortable against their face, feet and hands. They turned to lay on their back so at least their face wouldn’t have to touch it, resting their hands on their chest. But that wasn’t comfortable either, plus their feet were still touching the mat. Looking around, Crona realized there was no way for them to one hundred percent avoid their skin touching that mat, because there was only one blanket, and Medusa was hogging it.

    Crona was unable to get much sleep that night, between the texture of the mat, someone breathing heavily, and the fear that instinctively came from being vulnerable in Medusa’s presence. So when the sun rose the next morning, they could not stand it.

   “Get up, everyone!” Medusa exclaimed. “Everyone take a can of food or a dried fish for breakfast, and then we have to get moving.”

 

    The next week or so was spent just like that, spending most of the day moving, and camping at night, sleeping (or trying to sleep) from sunset to sunrise. Food supplies soon ran low, and Eruka grew more and more worried about it.

    “The forest is abundant, she won’t kill me, she won’t kill me,” Eruka muttered to herself. She looked over her shoulder at Crona, who was lucky enough to get a seat on Tadpole Jackson that day instead of a snake’s mouth.

   “Don’t worry, I’ll go without food for a few days so she doesn’t resort to cannibalism,” Crona replied. “It’s fine, I’m used to it.”

    Before Crona could say anything about the horrified look on Eruka’s face that came from hearing the second part of their statement, Medusa ordered the group to stop yet again.

    “Look, down there,” she said. Crona glanced over to where Medusa was pointing, at a small campsite.  “Other survivors.” Medusa got off her mount. “Come now, everyone. This is just what we needed.”

   

    There wasn’t much down at that campsite, just one large tent, some unlit firewood, and a second tent full of supplies. A family of four owned the campsite, a mother, a father, and their two young children. The father had a large shotgun, that he cautiously kept a hand on as Medusa and her group approached them.

    “Don’t worry, we won’t hurt you,” Medusa said in a honeyed tone. The father lowered his gun. “We’re here because we’re in dire need.”

    “Dire need?” the father asked. “Well, this family never ignores a neighbor in need, and you’re the closest thing we have to a neighbor now.”

    Medusa smiled. _It’s probably a mistake for them to trust her,_ Crona thought, having the advantage of actually knowing Medusa. _Well, not like I’ll even remember them in a week. Just another group of disposable humans._

    “My name’s Dave, and this is my lovely wife Sharon,” the father said, pointing to the woman standing next to him.

   “And these are our children,” Sharon added, looking over to where the two of them were playing. “Our oldest is Paxton. He’s eight years old. And his sister’s Kaley. She’s six.”

   “My name is Medusa,” Medusa said. “And these are my associates, Eruka and Free. Eruka’s a witch and Free’s a werewolf. Nobody will assist us on account of this, and we’re running so low on supplies.”

   “Well you’re welcome to stay with us as long as you like,” Dave replied. “Wait, who’s that?”

   “Oh, I almost forgot to introduce my child,” Medusa said, putting her arm around Crona. They flinched, almost breaking into a cold sweat. “This is Crona, and the Demon Sword, Ragnarok.”

   “Wow, you guys are ugly,” Ragnarok said, returning to his usual form.

   “Ragnarok, be nice,” Crona said in vain. Ragnarok gave them a look that told them exactly what he thought of _that_ statement.

    “You have a child that old?” Sharon gasped. “But you barely look twenty-five, what’s your secret?”

    “Secret?” Medusa asked. She playfully laughed. “Oh, there’s no secret. I guess I just naturally look this youthful.”

    Sharon’s eye twitched. Dave gave a forced laugh to try and defuse the tension.

    “Well, there’s a river down over there if you guys need some water to drink or bathe,” he said.

    “Oh, thank you,” Medusa said. “Crona, why don’t you go refill these?” she asked, handing Crona the canteens. Crona nodded, and walked down the hill. _Great, four new people to deal with_. They looked over their shoulder to see Eruka and Free setting Medusa’s supplies over by the family’s. _I’ll just try not to talk to them. People aren’t easy to interact with at all._

    Crona filled up the canteens, and began to wash their hands off in the river. The water felt nice and cool, and it was good to get all that dirt and stuff off of them. They cupped up some water in their hands and began to wash their face, not noticing the two young children come down the hill.

    “Hello,” the little girl said. Crona shook some of the water off their hands before letting them drip-dry. They looked over at the kids. _Those must be Paxton and Kaley._ Kaley whispered something to Paxton before she walked up to Crona.

    “You look like a raccoon,” Kaley said.

    “What?” Crona asked.

    “Because of the dark circles around your eyes,” Kaley added with a smile.

    “Oh no,” Crona said, touching underneath their left eye. “They can’t be back again, I can’t deal with that.” Ragnarok was struggling not to laugh.

    “I’m not being mean, raccoons are my favorite animal,” Kaley said. _Oh, it’s… a compliment?_

“I see you two have met Medusa’s child,” Sharon said, walking down towards the kids. She had a hair brush in her hand.

    “What’s the brush for?” Crona asked, hoping it wasn’t a weapon. They could easily fight her off, but they’d rather not if they didn’t have to.

    “Your hair’s all matted and there’s stuff in it, I was going to ask if you wanted to borrow it,” Sharon replied. “Is everything okay? You look really rough.”

    Crona didn’t answer her. Not like anyone ever cared about their problems anyway. Why would anyone now?

    “This apocalypse has been a little much for them,” Ragnarok said. “Plus we don’t have sleeping bags and they hate the mat.”

    “Ragnarok!” Crona exclaimed in surprise. _Of course he’d just blurt it out like that._

“Hey, maybe she’ll find a replacement so you don’t keep losing sleep,” Ragnarok said. The two kids ran back off up the hill. Apparently talking to Crona didn’t interest them anymore.

    “I’m sorry, but we don’t have any extra sleeping bags,” Sharon replied. She sat down next to Crona, and handed them the brush. “But I can see if there’s anything I can spare to make you feel better.”

    _Why does she want to help me? She barely knows me,_ Crona thought, trying to brush their hair out. Since they hadn’t even touched a brush since before the apocalypse started, it hurt like hell to try and pull it through. It was almost like brushing tore at their scalp, and the brush got stuck once. And twice. And a third time. Frustrated, Ragnarok ended up taking the brush from Crona to do this himself.

    “Oww, you’re making it hurt worse,” Crona said. _This headache was going to last forever, wasn’t it?_

    “Could you just shut up for one second?” Ragnarok asked.

    “That’s not very nice,” Sharon interjected. Ragnarok promptly showed her his middle finger.

    “He always talks to me like this,” Crona said, trying to play it off like it was nothing to worry about, but it came out sounding half-defeated. “Really, it’s no big deal.”

     The look on Sharon’s face told Crona that she believed otherwise.

     “It bothers you, doesn’t it?” Sharon asked. Crona didn’t say anything. They didn’t want to lie, because Ragnarok knows all their tells. And they didn’t want to tell the truth, because it would just piss him off further. Besides, he already knew anyway.

    “And judging by the look on your face, he’s not the only one bothering you, isn’t he?”

    “I… uh,” Crona replied. _I mean, another mother would be the last person I’d want to tell about Lady Medusa. Especially one who’s this… perceptive._ “It’s just… I don’t know, it’s all just terrible. Everything is. I don’t know how much longer I can deal with it.”

    Sharon gave a sympathetic smile, reaching her arm out to touch Crona’s shoulder.

    “You’ve made it this far,” she said. “I don’t know much about you, but you look like you’ve endured a lot in the course of your life.” _Understatement._ “Do you think you can get through this new world as well?”

    “No,” Crona replied. “Not for much longer, anyway.”

    “That’s why I’m here, idiot,” Ragnarok said, resting a hand on Crona’s head. Even though his face remained as expressionless as usual, his tone wasn’t openly aggressive. Exasperated, but not aggressive.

    “And my family and I too will welcome you with open arms,” Sharon added. “We don’t want this world to remain like this forever, either. So all we can do is stay strong together and rough it out in the hopes that soon all the infected will be killed and society can resume anew.”

    Crona looked back towards the top of the hill at everyone. Medusa and Free were setting up their tent, Dave was beginning to roast some meat over the fire for dinner, and Eruka was giving the children rides on Tadpole Jackson. Having twice the amount of people to deal with was going to be a nightmare, but at least these ones seemed like they were going to be nice.

    “I’ll leave you be for now so you can get yourself cleaned up before dinner,” Sharon said. “If you need, you can talk to me at any time. I’ll always be right here at camp.”

    “Okay,” Crona replied, watching her begin to walk off. “Thank you.”

    “You know, you really gotta start running your fingers through your hair or something to get these tangles out before it gets this bad again,” Ragnarok said. “I’d hit you for this, but the brush is probably pulling at your scalp enough as it is.”

     “Yeah, this is pretty painful,” Crona replied.

 

     After Ragnarok finished brushing out their hair, Crona decided they’d find a point further downstream away from the camp’s view in order to bathe. It felt nice to finally get cleaned up after this long, but it did not feel nice to realize they only had the one dress, which was now uncomfortably damp from them putting it back on immediately due to no other option.

    “I’m just saying, putting that filthy thing back on defeats the point of bathing.”

    “Ragnarok, it’s all I have.”

    “You could have at least thrown it in the river for a bit.”

    “But then it would have gotten soaking wet, and that would be really uncomfortable to wear.”

    “It’s still wet though.”

    “There you two are,” Medusa said. “Come on, Dave and Sharon made venison for dinner.”

    _Oh, she’s still faking being nice,_ Crona thought. They sat down between Free and Eruka as Sharon began handing out portions for everyone. Despite his rudeness earlier, she even handed some to Ragnarok.

    “So you think Lady Medusa’s gonna kill them?” Eruka whispered to Crona and Free. She discreetly glanced over to the family sitting at the other end of the fire.

    “I’m trying not to get too attached in case she does,” Free replied.

    “But they clearly know how to survive out here, and they trust and care for us,” Crona said. “They could be allies.”

    “Since when did you give a shit about human life?” Ragnarok asked, taking a huge bite of his dinner.

    “These ones are nice,” Crona replied. _He probably thinks it’s just because they fed us and weren’t mean to me. Well…_

“Well I’m gonna look out for you and Eruka before these guys,” Free said. “Unless Lady Medusa decides to let them live.”

    “So it’s up to her?” Eruka asked.

    “It always is,” Crona replied. _I can’t believe I’m actually hoping someone will live,_ they thought, taking a bite of their food. They looked over at Medusa, who was chatting with the parents about her journey so far, conveniently leaving out the fact that she was a witch, her true plans, and the contents of the attache case.

    “I just want to get back to DWMA,” Medusa said. “As the nurse, I have a duty to uphold for those kids.”

    “As parents, we understand,” Dave replied. “You want our help?”

    “That would be just lovely,” Medusa replied with a smile. Either Medusa was lying through her teeth, or, it was a tiny possibility, but perhaps all Crona’s hoping had amounted to something and the family sparked Medusa to have a change of heart.

 

    Late in the middle of that night, Crona lay on a fleece blanket (loaned to them so they wouldn’t have to feel the mat against the few exposed areas of their skin), sleeping as peacefully as they ever could out here. Before being awoken by screams.

     “What’s going on out there?” they gasped, springing awake faster than both Eruka and Free did. They ran out of the tent to see Medusa standing right outside the family’s tent. Vector Arrows, dripping with blood, retreated back to Medusa. She smirked, as four blue glowing lights appeared from inside the tent. Souls. All four members of that family were dead.

    “Oh, perfect timing, Crona,” Medusa said, wiping a drop of blood off her face. “I was just about to wake you.”

    “I shouldn’t have expected anything other than this,” Crona muttered to themself. They felt a jolt in their back, the pain growing worse and worse. Ragnarok burst out of Crona’s back, and immediately went into sword form. Crona cautiously walked over to the tent, dragging the tip of Ragnarok’s blade against the ground. Medusa opened the tent flap to show Crona what was inside. There was blood splattered all over the inside of the tent, and all the family’s sleeping bags and pillows were torn to shreds by the Vector arrows. The four souls glowed, illuminating the messy scene with their soft blue light. But not for long, as Ragnarok soon swallowed them all up. And just like that, almost every trace of the hospitable and trusting family was gone. Medusa picked up the shotgun from inside the tent, tracking out bloody footprints onto the dirt.

    “Eruka! Free!” she called out. “Come help Crona and I take all these supplies.”

    Free emerged from the tent first, before Eruka hopped out in frog form. Eruka transformed back into human form before following Free over to where Medusa stood.

    “How much is ours now?” Free asked.

    “All of it,” Medusa replied with a sinister smile. “If we all work together, we can get it packed up and us out of here by sunrise. Good thing, too. Those people were insufferable.”

    “But…” Crona began, before stopping themself. They knew better than to talk back against Medusa. Besides, what’s done was done. Those deaths were from a magic attack that left the bodies to vanish. There was no way for Medusa to go back from this. And from the looks of it, she knew this and didn’t even care. Just like all the horrible stuff she’d done all these years. Perhaps now, in the dead of night and the middle of the woods, was when that last bit of Crona’s hope for their mother possibly even thinking about having a change of heart shattered into nothingness. It should have shattered much, much earlier.

     “Of course we weren’t going to get allies like you thought,” Ragnarok said. “It’d be double the mouths to feed anyway, and we don’t have transportation for them, and…”

     “I get it,” Crona replied.

     “Don’t cut me off!” Ragnarok shouted.

     “Sorry,” Crona replied. “I know there was no reason to hope, but… no, I shouldn’t have even let that thought cross my mind. No matter how welcoming they were, they’re just… another set of disposable humans I’ll probably forget about in a week. Right?”

     “You better,” Ragnarok said. “Don’t want you whining about _yet another_ thing on this fucking mission.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m going to be starting college soon, and since schoolwork comes before writing fanfic, updates are going to get more sporadic.

**Author's Note:**

> What's the best way to incorporate a zombie apocalypse in canonverse? Have it be sorta Medusa's fault. And since Sid is referred to as a zombie in-series and is obviously not like a classic Hollywood horror movie zombie, the rest of the “zombies” in the fic are referred to as “the infected” or “soulless animated corpses”


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